Please Critique My Equip. Shopping List

mishmaster

mishmaster

Member
Im Starting a new 90g. sps dominant and some lps at the bottom. I currently have a crappy 75 that is not drilled, (therefore no sump).

I've bought the 90g glass tank, the stand, canopy, and lights.

My current shopping list choices are

Protein Skimmer (for a 90g tank w/30g sump)

Super Reef Octopus 6" $415.00
-or-
Super Reef Octopus 8' $490.00

Return Pump
Eheim 1262 (leaning towards this one) $190
or
Sicce Syntra 4.0 $173
Sicce is supposed to be smaller

Wave Maker
Gyre XF150 299.99
or
Vortech Quiet MP40 Quiet Drive $350


Substrate
carib sea special grade
or
some sort of oolite

I will start a build thread once it is up and running.
 
mishmaster said:
Im Starting a new 90g. sps dominant and some lps at the bottom. I currently have a crappy 75 that is not drilled, (therefore no sump).

I've bought the 90g glass tank, the stand, canopy, and lights.

My current shopping list choices are

Protein Skimmer (for a 90g tank w/30g sump)

Super Reef Octopus 6" $415.00
-or-
Super Reef Octopus 8' $490.00

Return Pump
Eheim 1262 (leaning towards this one) $190
or
Sicce Syntra 4.0 $173
Sicce is supposed to be smaller

Wave Maker
Gyre XF150 299.99
or
Vortech Quiet MP40 Quiet Drive $350


Substrate
carib sea special grade
or
some sort of oolite

I will start a build thread once it is up and running.
Click to expand...

I'm not familiar with Reef Octopus skimmers but I will say with an sps dominant tank it would be better to have a skimmer that can take whatever you can throw at it, don't undersize it.

The Sicce's are smaller footprint pumps. Both are good and I don't think you can go wrong either way.

I would go Gyre XF150. I have owned one, they are just as good if not better than what you would hope them to be.

Carib Sea Seaflor Special Grade
 
IMO

Protein Skimmer (for a 90g tank w/30g sump)
Super Reef Octopus 6" (rated for up to 200gal) unless your planing on going very heavy bio-load...

Return Pump
Eheim 1262 (no better internal pump IMO) still have a 20+ yr old Ehiem 1050 and still runs like new with original impeller

Wave Maker
Vortech Quiet MP40 Quiet Drive (new QD is suposed to be a major improvement)

Substrate
Carib Sea Special Grade (only substrate I've ever used) love the 2mm size and good for Wrasses
 
If going with a vortech I would consider at least two MP40's especially considering you're planning on an SPS dominant reef. I would also consider the Aquamaxx cone 2 or the elite series of octopus.

You'll also want to give some thought to either dosing or calcium reactor. I've always dosed so I can't provide any input on a reactor. And since sps are finicky as all hell I would argue a controller is a must for stability and peace of mind.
 
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